Al Asad Md. Mahfuzul Islam
Policing has undergone significant changes since last year. It has been transforming in many areas, for instance, initiating tactical gears and stuffs, small arms instead of traditional long arms, making training institutions great again, regaining the image of Bangladesh Police Academy as birth place of Police, reshaping all ranks training and capacity enhancement from conventional approach to customized and harmonized approach, hands on futuristic contents development for police practitioners etc. All these transformations have been taking place to achieve the objectives of Mujib Borsho for pro-people policing and these changes are being led by one single iconic Inspector General of Police, Bangladesh Dr. Benazir Ahmed, BPM (Bar).
Dr. Benazir Ahmed has truly been recognized as a brilliant masterpiece of organizational change management both in home and aboard due to his epoch making futuristic and innovative initiatives since his service in United Nations Headquarters. Spearheading as IGP, he started to listen and learn from desks to fields operations and instructed everyone to come up with at least five innovative ideas. It does not stop in listening, it goes beyond. He instructed to incorporate all these ideas and disseminate concerned offices for implementation. This process of workflow may be familiar in other parts of the services but rare in policing practice as it is a command-based service. In the history of policing this is a kind of major breakthrough while the Top Cop of the Nation wants to listen and implements their ideas gradually.

Over the years in policing, there are gradual developments; however Dr. Benazir Ahmed brings colossal changes in conventional policing. The citizens of the country could not think police image without a long arm, a few years back it was .303 weapons. It has been diametrically changed now. In Dhaka and Chittagong Metropolitan area, field police started to use smart stuffs and gears with tactical belt and gradually this development will be carried forward to district jurisdictions. From an outsider perspective, it may seem a tiny change but from an insider point of view it is a colossal change towards aesthetic development.

In regards to police education, there were myths and misperceptions in the minds of citizens. Dr. Ahmed transforms this blurring image to a glowing one. The learnability is now inbuilt within Bangladesh Police. He disseminates leadership value chain model from center to corner. From the day one, he has been leading by examples. Creating the culture of learning and quest from knowledge, Dr. Benazir Ahmed, the IGP of 21st Century, transforms Bangladesh Police Academy as learning hotspot for all ranks and staffs of Bangladesh Police. He wants to establish a learning culture within every team and entire organization.

Rewarding junior colleagues for specific performances is always a great motivation. In Police, Rewards are mostly based on Police Week celebration. Apart from this celebration, the IGP Dr. Benazir Ahmed has initiated event specific performance-based reward system from Police Headquarters. He already rewarded junior colleagues in many occasions and recoveries, for example, recovery of six young teenagers from Sundarban.

Policing is crucial in this pandemic. He foreshadowed the sharp rise of coronavirus spread, meanwhile, without any delay; he took immediate initiative through all police offices across the country reinitiating mass campaign, awareness promotion and musk distribution and instructed filed commanders for all time readiness to deploy to encounter the challenges of corona virus. The transformations are mainly focused on institutionalization, structural elements, processes, facilities, and technologies to meet the future policing challenges. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Police is no more a conventional police, the entire organization has been working for the aspirations of our development policies and strategies by ensuring sustainable security under the transformational leadership of Dr. Benazir Ahmed, BPM(Bar), Inspector General of Police, Bangladesh.

The Writer has been serving as Additional Superintendent of Police in UN Affairs Training wing in Bangladesh Police Headquarters.